A product of U.S. Army-sanctioned mass slaughter of American bison in the 1800s,
these bison skulls are waiting to be ground for fertilizer, most likely in the
American midwest. The slaughter was so “effective” that the population of bison
in the U.S. is estimated to have dropped from around 60 million in 1800 to as
few as 750 in 1890.

Chief Little Wound with his wife and son. (1899 Heyn Photo)

[2006] Nanyehi - Nancy Ward - The last of the Ghigua.
My Cherokee (Nanyehi) Lineageby Mary
SutherlandThe Cherokee were a matriarch
society, where the women were equal to the men. Clan kinship followed the
mother's side of the family. The children grew up in the mother's house, and it
was the duty of an uncle on the mother's side to teach the boys how to hunt,
fish, and perform certain tribal duties. The women owned the houses and their
furnishings.Marriages were carefully negotiated, but
if a woman decided to divorce her spouse, she simply placed his belongings
outside the house....In the
Cherokee society , your Clan was your family. Children belonged to the entire
Clan, and when orphaned were simply taken into a different household. Marriages
were often short term, and there was no punishment for divorce or adultery.
Cherokee women were free to marry traders, surveyors, and soldiers, as well as
their own tribesmen.Cherokee girls learned by example
how to be warriors and healers.

“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized
men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents.
Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and
therefore among us there were no thieves.When someone was so poor that he
couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it
all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private
property. We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a
human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down,
no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one
another.We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t
know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things
that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.” - John (Fire)
Lame Deer, Sioux Lakota, 1903-1976.”
Open Your Eyes

Piegan man and woman by a river. Montana. 1912. Photo by
Roland W. Reed with hand-coloring by JoHannas Anderson.